Marketing a Rental Real Estate News

Marketing your corporate rental!

As a Corporate Rental Owner, are you aware that more than 20% of tenants in “by owner” rentals stay one year or longer? This is in stark contrast to the managed corporate housing industry where the average stay is only 80 days. In the extended stay industry, the average stay is less than seven days according to the 2009 “By Owner” Corporate Housing Report. To best market and optimize your property’s likelihood of attracting desirable tenants, you may want to consider offering the following to prospective renters:

• List a monthly and/or yearly rental fee in addition to your nightly or weekly fees.  This lets prospective renters know that the property is available for long-term rental as well.

• Keep your listing active on CHBO! Work to increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO), rankings and visibility.

• Frequently update your listing with new photographs (particularly when the seasons change so that the home is reflected as it looks at any time of year), additional details, upgrades that are made to the property, etc.  This not only increases your visibility with search engines, it makes the listing accurate for people that may view it at any time.

• Consider updating the listing for your property for use during local events/conventions.  Often times, hotels will sell out when conventions, concerts, exhibits, etc. come to town.  Many people will look to residences as a form of lodging and it is important to have your property listed for these events if it is not occupied.  Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Department of Tourism to find out more about events in your local area.

Taking the necessary steps to update your photos, link to local events and constantly update your property description will ensure that you remain high in Google and other search engine results when prospective renters are looking.  This increases your chances of having your property rented out more frequently and, possibly, for longer periods of time, all of which serve to maximize your profits as a property owner.